We are hosting two online Town Hall discussions Tuesday, March 17  where you can connect with other school leaders to problem-solve together and to learn about tools for supporting teachers. As a community, we can leverage our collective experience.

For the 7:30 am (Eastern) session, you can register here.

For the 10:30 am (Eastern; 7:30 am Pacific) session, you can register here.

Ideas and Insight

• Stay in touch – Create opportunities and processes, such as using Slack for staff to informally interact.
• Maintain rituals – Acknowledge popular rituals virtually, such as birthdays, celebrations, office hours, happy hours and other moments when staff would come together.
• Ask – Regularly check-in with staff to see how they are adjusting to their “new normal” and how you can support them. Tend to emotional needs as well as required tasks.
• Be Clear – Establish and clearly communicate norms and boundaries for when and how staff communicate with each other and with their supervisors.
• Encourage structure – Encourage staff to maintain a regular schedule and create an “office” space at home.
• Be Innovative – Deploy the many online programs, platforms and applications that allow teams to meet and collaborate online, such as Folio, Slack, Google Hangouts – and define expectations for how these tools are used.
• Stay positive – Remind teachers that while this change might be new and temporary, the fundamentals of connecting with students and learning communities remain constant.
• Promote learning and growth – Help teachers see online learning (and any change) as an opportunity to reimagine instruction and develop their practice.